Bwahahahaha! So much for upgrading.

a nameless entity · **Posted:** Sat Nov 09, 2002 11:51 pm

Well I did say that I was planning to buy a new heap "in November", didn't I? Actually, I meant that I was waiting to pay in November. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"> So when I slyly noticed that my brand new Esso Visa card had a high enough limit for my purposes, I started watching the Dell website. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/devil.gif ALT=":evil"> Sure enough, that sweet "double your ram and hard drive offer came back again. Plus a free monitor upgrade to a flat screen 17 incher and free shipping. Sweet! I placed the order right away and took delivery in an amazingly short six days. I've had the new heap for 29 days. Now I'm really not trying to brag here, so I'll let you guys guess how much ram there is (free doubling, remember? <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"> ) and I'll give you one other hint: 8X the cpu and vid ram. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/laugh.gif ALT=":lol"> In short: You hardware buffs influenced me into just about bankrupting myself! (Of course it's all your fault!) <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/laugh.gif ALT=":lol"> Well it all sounds good on paper, right? Arrrrgghhhhhhhh. Sweet anticipation turned to dismay almost immediately. Unreal Tournament does not like Windoze XP! I reinstalled twice in compatability mode trying to get it to run the same as on the old heap. Nope, no way. I cannot minimize the game window in XP. It goes all the way down to the task bar, and can't be retrieved. So I can't multitask while running UT any more. If I do anything before playing and don't do a 3 minute shutdown and then reboot, the game stutters eventually, just like the old heap. It's not as bad overall, but it sure is annoying. Sometimes the game does become unplayable. When I quit UT, the music drones on and on. Sometimes trying to surf the web is impossible without rebooting. UT memory leaks like crazy. Another thing: D3D sucks compared to 3dfx Glide! If you run up to a wall, you can often see this grainy moire pattern, instead of the smooth surface that 3dfx Glide gives. The glow around light sources is poor in D3D compared to Glide. I see weird patterns around light sources while guiding a rocket. I also see a lot of weird moire patterns around the seams of textures and lots of jaggies while guiding too, that weren't there under 3dfx Glide. Bah! The only good thing about D3D is that it can warn me when my ping is going sour, because blast decals take on a coarse multicoloured moire pattern. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/indifferent.gif ALT=":|"> But how did the game play you ask? Awfully at first. The cheap Dell scroll mouse had to go. The right button was so sensitive that I was blowing myself up a lot for even my own level of incompetence. I got a great deal on a Logitech optical wheel mouse that fits my hand nicely, but it was a bitch figuring out how to adjust it through its own software plus the settings in UT to get it to run well. A word of advice to the unwary: Turn mouse acceleration off, unless you like doing a 270 degree turn when you wanted to do a 180, etc. I was bouncing off the walls a lot helplessly as people fragged me mercilessly. It took me several days to figure out that one. Not fun. Nope. Not at all. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/ohwell.gif ALT=":\"> And guiding rockets, whooo boy, they were out of control a lot as the mouse acceleration combined with my unfamiliarity with a fast vid card took their toll. I'm still getting used to the speed of the new card, and I'm not sure I'm done tweaking the mouse yet either. I guess I should temper my remarks by pointing out that I've noticed at least two nice things about the new heap. It can handle that frame rate robbing green corridor/corner area in Deck 16 2k1 nicely. The old heap used to strain in that high poly count zone. Also, when I use the teleporter in that map now, I end up in the rafters over the green corner area now as I'm supposed to, rather than always falling down to the floor. The new heap can handle the mayhem of those firework redeemers over at the Fatz clan server. I went in there with the old heap the other day, and when three of them were fired at once my framerate dropped to quite literally nil. I didn't realize what a good job the new heap was doing in that regard until then. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"> Overall, has my game improved? A little. In some ways. As I suspected, it seems similar to upgrading from 56k to cable. You notice the improvement right away, and can now do a few more tricks successfully that were unavailable before. And there are seldom any of the frustrations that I so often got with the old heap when it would start to get tired and need a reboot. But the name (?) of the entity is still not to be feared, as my other suspicion has come true too. New hardware or not, I still suck in a full house. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/mad.gif ALT=">:"> I came in last place with the dreaded negative score on the last three maps I played on at CG1 tonight. Dismay turned to frustration as I realized that I still have a massive talent for somehow launching my rockets just as someone elses goes by no matter how I time it, thereby blowing myself up again and again. Arrrrrrgggghhhhhhh!!! Jargonaut, please hurry and finish your advice page, I'm obviously missing something basic here when the house is full. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":("> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":("> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":("> Final conclusions: 1) As far as UT is concerned, I suspect that 256 meg of ram is plenty. But get 512 anyway. 2) You don't need more than a 64 meg vid card for this game. 3) Be prepared for Windoze XP to give you at least some grief when you install UT. 4) A 2.4 gig cpu is lots for UT. Hopefully as cpu prices continue to fall, it will get to be an even better and better deal. I noticed the other day that Dell was quietly and automatically bumping you up to a 2.53 "for free" as you configured a computer. I guess they're out of 2.4's at the moment or something. 5) Buying a new fast and capable computer just makes you want to spend even more money! Now I want a digital camera, and an 11X14 capable photo printer! There's another $2000 bucks I could blow right there! <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/eek.gif ALT=":eek"> 6a) Unreal Tournament is a game of skill, not hardware. (What a piss off! <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"> ) Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub44.ezboard.com/bschwantzsredeemerarenaserver.showUserPublicProfile?gid=anamelessentity@schwantzsredeemerarenaserver>a nameless entity</A> at: 11/20/02 3:58:35 pm

Hermskii · **Posted:** Sun Nov 10, 2002 12:39 am

I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention. Can you repeat that please? Thanks! I have lots of questions and good advice too. More on both later. Glad you got a new system though. Hermskii

Mahatma · **Posted:** Sun Nov 10, 2002 1:58 am

hey nameless i had the same problem. i love the speed and the ability to multitask like crazy. But when I first reinstalled UT on the new Dell, it didn't run too well. I had major mouse problems. Had to switch back to my old mouse. Turn down the sensitivity. I had sound problems that were affecting game play. I turned off hardware acceleration, and all is good. I think all the tweaks that I had going for UT to work well on my old rig were just not right for the new rig. On my old rig, I could never minimize UT without it crashing. Now I can minimize and multitask -- opposite of you. Have you got the newest Nvidia drivers -- the ones that came out today? Try those -- it may add some stability. But who knows. We should've bought Macs. Mahatma

The Hookster · **Joined:** Mon Jun 17, 2002 2:17 pm **Posts:** 95

I read that same add at DELL and even tho I don't like Built Puters, it was a great deal... Your just having growing pains. That's all. You should of tried getting a new board, new CPU and new memory to to talk to 'OLD' cards. HD's, video cards, serial ports and etc. AND then O/C the darn thing. Royal pain in the rear! But it can be done, even by me 8-) Have fun with your new system. It's gonna ROCK !! Das Hookster

Hermskii · **Posted:** Sun Nov 10, 2002 12:31 pm

If you have the game set to use 60mhz refresh as it is by default and the windows uses the monitor at a different refresh rate, it will crash. There is a place in one of UT's ini files that will let you change the refresh rate to match what you have windows using. A indicater to you that windows and UT have different refresh rates is when you switch into the game does your monitor click and seem to reboot when you start the game? If it seemes to turn off and on again because you started the game, then the refresh settings are different. I set all of my stuff to 75mhz so that doesn't happen. Have you ever gone into the advanced settings while in the game? This is another good test. While at the UT desktop, hit the tilde key(~). Aconsole will open. At the command line type "preferences". If your refresh rates aren't syncronized between the game and windows, the game will crash right then or you'll hear the big click as your monitor seems to reboot. Ususally it will crash though. If it does, go to monitor and adaptor settings and put them both at 60mhz. Reboot the entire system and try again. The next time it will work I bet! Good luck. Let us know what happens. Hermskii

Mahatma · **Posted:** Sun Nov 10, 2002 2:26 pm

Herm, you should do a Tweaks webpage on Schw's site or elsewhere. You are the man. Where in the Preferences console is the refresh rate setting? I couldn't find it. M

Jargonaut · **Joined:** Wed Sep 04, 2002 2:04 pm **Posts:** 341

On (11/9/02 10:51:09 pm), a nameless entity typed: "Jargonaut, please hurry and finish your advice page, I'm obviously missing something basic here when the house is full." LOL, I have yet to figure that one out! I can't tell you the number of times that has happened to me! I do know that when the house is full of "spreaders", it gets really difficult to play. Just ask the folks who played Deck 16 in the tourney. As for the new rig, you will love it when the bugs are ironed out. Instead of D3D, try Open GL. On the usenet UT group, most players prefer it to D3D because it gives better graphics and higher frame rates. Good luck! The Jargonaut

Jargonaut · **Joined:** Wed Sep 04, 2002 2:04 pm **Posts:** 341

I decided to try the advice that I gave above. Mixed reviews. When I first changed over, the screen was very dark. I could not change it in preferences. I went back out on the internet and found the fix. Before you change over to OpenGL, go to <a href="http://unreal.epicgames.com/">unreal.epicgames.com/</a> and download the UT OpenGL patch. Follow the instructions and this will fix the screen darkness problems. I then changed the refresh rate in the Unreal Tournament.ini file to match my monitor. I cranked up UT and it looks great. I have about a 10 percent increase in frame rates (from 50 to 60). That's not bad considering I'm running at 1280x1024 with everything maxed out. I decided to minimize, and it was almost instantaneous. Same with maximizing. Now for the bad. I have to re-boot after closing out of UT if I want to play again. That is the only problem I have so far. I will let you know of others. Updated!! WOW! The textures and lighting effects are MUCH better, I suggest everyone else try this. Here are the complete instructions. 1. Start UT 2. Go to preferences. 3. Hit the change button on the video tab. 4.The detecting 3D video devices screen comes up. Hit show all devices. 5. Choose OpenGL. 6. Now, if you have downloaded the patch, and made the changes to your Unreal Tournament.ini file (which you should open in notepad), you should be complete. Try it. You might like it. The Jargonaut Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub44.ezboard.com/bschwantzsredeemerarenaserver.showUserPublicProfile?gid=jargonaut@schwantzsredeemerarenaserver>Jargonaut</A> <IMG SRC="http://www.uselessgraphics.com/mutley-ani.gif" BORDER=0> at: 11/10/02 7:28:15 pm

a nameless entity · **Posted:** Sun Nov 10, 2002 8:40 pm

Thanks guys, I've got the patch for Open GL. I'm going to see if I can find the line to change in the UT.ini and make it 75Hz to match my monitor. I've done stuff like that before, so I think I can get away with it. My brother has an extra Voodoo 2 that he's offered me, so I may try going that route too. 3dfx Glide again? You bet! <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/happy.gif ALT=":D"> One thing that has eluded me and my more computer tech oriented brother is getting both heaps to network. I used the wizard under XP which built me a floppy disk to use on the old computer to establish the network, but that didn't work. Now it turns out that Micro$oft has screwed up somewhere, as the XP computer tries to force the older O/S to conform to its standards instead of the other way around, as it should be. My brother and I could not find any setup wizard under Win98SE after we used this setup disk, and the help files are empty. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/mad.gif ALT=">:"> So did this setup disk screw things up and strip out files? Or was my original Win98SE upgrade flawed from the beginning? Damned if I know, but the result is that my heaps won't talk to each other, and there's files on the old one I would have liked to move over before I did the complete wipe on the hard drive I'm planning to get around to eventually. btw, the computers are hooked up to a Linksys router and they both can surf the web just fine. They just can't talk to each other. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":(">

Hermskii · **Posted:** Sun Nov 10, 2002 10:44 pm

I used the OpenGL patch a long time ago to be able to use the DXT1 textures or whatever they were called. It made the game look much better as I recall. You say to get he patch and make changes to the INI. file. I remember doing that but are you saying you have to get two patches. Give a date for the one you downloaded or dateS for the oneS you grabbed. I grabbed the one from 09-06-02. Was that all I needed? It didn't come with any instructions to make any modifications to the INI file. If you used one of the older renderer fixes that did have instructions, which one? The Date? Thanks. I can't restart the game either. I will have to reboot and kick everyone off the servers to do it. This didn't used to be an issue in the past, last time I used it. ??????? Maybe I'll wait for a better version. It seems not to release video settings back to windows. My screen is now very bright. Bummer. Hermskii

Jargonaut · **Joined:** Wed Sep 04, 2002 2:04 pm **Posts:** 341

I actually found the other, newer dll after changing out the old one. The one I am running was last modified on Friday, September 06, 2002, 10:42:54 PM. The first file that I downloaded is just a little bit below the last one, from March, 2001 and this is what is in the file for OGL. [OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice] RefreshRate=75 DetailTextures=1 UseTrilinear=1 UseS3TC=1 UseTNT=0 LODBias=0 UseMultiTexture=1 UsePalette=1 UseAlphaPalette=0 Translucency=1 VolumetricLighting=1 ShinySurfaces=1 Coronas=1 HighDetailActors=1 MaxAnisotropy=0 AlwaysMipmap=0 UsePrecache=0 SupportsLazyTextures=0 Hope this helps, Herm. The Jargonaut

a nameless entity · **Posted:** Mon Nov 11, 2002 12:17 am

I looked for refresh rates in the UT.ini file, but only saw one under OpenGL, not D3D. It was 75Hz, the same as my monitor's default value. I tried going into preferences from the console, and minimizing the game at both 60Hz and 75Hz. It made no difference. The same things would happen. Clicking on the minimize button puts in you in for a very long, long, wait and then the game would go into a small window, and be unretrievable from there. Bringing down the console and typing in 'preferences' made for another very long wait, and then I'd be there. No crashing. Btw, changing the game resolution in the preferences from the desktop from one value to another has always brought about another very long wait for something to happen. (This is a fast system?) My old computer would do all these things flawlessly, and quickly. Strange. I'm a little bit confused about that OGL patch. I have the one from 6/9/2002. Do I just drag and drop it into my UT system folder, and then change any stuff in the .ini file to match what we have written here? No instructions came with the file, and I believe this one is the final version, is it not?

Jargonaut · **Joined:** Wed Sep 04, 2002 2:04 pm **Posts:** 341

On (11/10/02 11:17:02 pm) a nameless entity wrote: "Do I just drag and drop it into my UT system folder, and then change any stuff in the .ini file to match what we have written here?" Yes. That is what I have done to mine. I'm still looking for an explanation for the rebooting problem. There has to be a fix out there. I'll keep trying. The Jargonaut

a nameless entity · **Posted:** Mon Nov 11, 2002 11:34 pm

Ok, that's great. Thanks! <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)">

a nameless entity · **Posted:** Wed Nov 20, 2002 5:04 pm

The stuttering doesn't necessarily seem to always be related to whether or not I did something else before starting a game of UT after all. It was bad one night off of a fresh cold boot. I was wrong in my original post about UT being strictly a game of skill and not hardware too. I'm getting away with things I'd never have tried or couldn't manage with the old heap. Playing on the old computer now is so dreary an experience. Looks like better hardware means better opportunities to learn finer skills after all. Too bad!

Bwahahahaha! So much for upgrading.

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